Golden Valley League of Women Voters Celebrates 75 Years
The Golden Valley League of Women Voters is celebrating a big milestone this week — it’s 75th anniversary.
Founding members of the organization “received a letter [on] Jan. 6, 1948 that they were now an official League of Women Voters local league,” said Marti Micks, president of the Golden Valley League of Women Voters. “Five women got together back in 1946 in one of their homes and they were going to create a local League of Women Voters. That had just been allowed by the national league … so it took them a while because you had to show that you knew the city. They had to do a survey of the city. They had to fill out a fairly intricate questionnaire.”
The League of Women Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that promotes voting rights and provides voters with candidate information.
Locally, the league hosts candidate forums before elections.
“The league has been really very active in the last few years,” Micks said.
Micks joined the league in 1976. She also served on the Golden Valley City Council from 1994 to 2002.
Celebrating 75 Years
To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the league and the Golden Valley Historical Society are hosting presentations on the league’s history.
“Probably the biggest impact is preparing women to become leaders in the community,” Micks said. “And I think foremost, Golden Valley had the first majority female city council — I believe — in the state. That was back in 1975.”
The first celebration is planned for Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Golden Valley Historic Church, 6731 Golden Valley Rd.
A second celebration program is planned for Saturday at 10 a.m. at Brookview Golden Valley community center. Visitors may show up a half-hour early to socialize.
“We will have speakers from the league that have represented different decades,” Micks said. “We think it’s going to be fun and [we’re] just hoping that we can get a bit of a reunion of people who have been involved in the city for all these years.”
Additional information is available on the league’s Facebook page.